Napster Spat Pits Fans vs. Bands

<Editor's note: This story was modified following its original publication).

Napster’s collision course with the music industry is headed for full impact.

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As recording artists prepare to join in a chorus of litigation, forcing companies and universities to block access to the utility, fed-up fans are lining up in support of Napster.

One fan became so agitated that he put all of his Metallica merchandise up for sale at eBay on Friday, promising to donate all the proceeds to the parody website paylars.com.

The site allows Napster users to donate money to a fund that will be given to Metallica to help make up for their purported losses from piracy.

“They can have their music and they can have my money, because I want nothing more to do with these sellouts,” the irate fan wrote in an email. The song “Master of Puppets is fitting….only this time, Metallica is on the wrong end of the strings.”

Although few people have donated money since it launched Thursday, the paylars site received about 3,000 visitors on Thursday, many of whom came to vent about the Metallica imbroglio.

“We’ve actually started raising some money, maybe $15,” said site co-creator Mark Erickson. “But I’m afraid that their fans are coming here because they aren’t really happy with Metallica.”

But the band didn’t have much choice when it came time to file the lawsuit, said Metallica lawyer Howard King.

“The band took this pretty personally,” he said. “The band was made aware of Napster a few months ago and they got angry and pissed off. They own all of their masters and songs, so there are no record companies in their way. People are stealing directly from these guys.”

Other musicians see a threat from Napster as well.

Dr. Dre threatened Napster with a lawsuit if all of their songs were not removed from the service’s listing by April 21, but on Friday extended the deadline indefinitely.

Musicians including the Goo Goo Dolls have started investigating their legal options as well, King said. (Editor’s note: This story originally reported that the Offspring have been looking into their legal options, but further information indicates this is not the case. This story was modified with this new information on April 24.)

“These artists are unhappy and didn’t understand what was happening until Metallica filed this lawsuit,” he said. “I’m optimistic that we’ll see others taking action within the next few weeks.”

Despite the heightened tensions between the band and its fans and the legal posturing in the music industry, one Metallica fan just wants to get back to what this whole mess is about: the music.

“No matter what the band’s legal dealings are, whether they appear to be sellouts or greedy, whether everyone thinks they’re hypocrites, I’ll still be a fan,” wrote 19-year old Metallica fan Andy DeYoung on a fan site. “They could sue anyone they wanted for pointless reasons and I’d still be plenty happy as long as the next album was amazing.”

Indiana University reversed its policy on Napster for a second time, banning access to the controversial MP3 music sharing service on Thursday to protect students, faculty and staff from potential legal liabilities.

The school originally stopped access to Napster on February 12 because use of the application was taking up too much network bandwidth. After an online student email petition circulated, the school relented, allowing access to the application.

No such luck for students this time. The school was named as co-defendant in the Metallica lawsuit, and officials decided to halt access once again.

“We don’t believe the university has incurred any liabilities,” said Christopher Simpson, vice president of public affairs and government relations at Indiana University. “But our legal team brought up the very really possibility that faculty, staff and students could be liable. The technology is outpacing our knowledge of the legal ramifications of digital downloading.”

Yale University, another co-defendant, capitulated on Wednesday, announcing the school would no longer allow students to connect to the Napster network, leaving only the University of Southern California and Napster as defendants in the suit.

Over 300 universities across the nation have banned access to Napster in response to legal and technological issues that have been raised since the application hit the college scene late last year. Napster first was sued in December by the Recording Industry Association of America for copyright infringement.

While universities are scurrying for cover, some legal experts believe Napster might not be in as much trouble as it appears.

“Napster is a user-to-user based application, so it might not be liable for copyright infringement,” said music lawyer Jennifer Burke Sylva, “but individual users would be liable for any piracy.”

Napster could use the 1984 Supreme Court decision resulting from a suit filed by the motion picture industry against Sony over its Betamax VCR as a precedent in its defense.

The court ruled that a technology couldn’t be outlawed simply because some of its users had found illegal ways to use it.